Long Way Down (Calloway Sisters)

Because right now, I see and hear and feel the panic and anxiety from prep school. Torment was my daily vitamin. The root of my problems began here. Somewhere between now and then, I’m less human in the eyes of people I grew up with.
They can touch me without thinking. They can use me without caring.
Sometimes, when I really contemplate what’s happened, I feel like I’ve died already. Like maybe I’m just this shell moseying around, and that’s what they see when they look at me.
It’s a terrible thought.
I turn on my side, tucking my knees to my chest on the black leather cushion.
Wanting to cry.
Maybe then, everything will feel better

People say you can’t describe love, but I have this theory that you can. It’s just subjective. Do you want to know what love feels like for me?
It’s breathing and suffocating. Sobbing and smiling. Yearning and fading. To ache that much harder. To live that much larger. It’s every moment. Every single, tiny one.

Damaged Like Us begins with three points-of-view. Three different romances. Their lives and stories all interconnecting:

Maximoff Hale.

Jane Cobalt.

Sullivan Meadows

Know that when we say the word Fizzle Force, we mean you. Yes, you. We may have never exchanged a word, but you made it here. Nine books. You loved these characters. You’re a part of this lovely thing called the Fizzle Force too. Don’t forget that, okay?

We like to think that a piece of each of you remains inside these pages.

Wow. Is it over? Is this real? I think we may ask ourselves this for the next decade. The Addicted series has defined a magical part of our lives.

Behind the mountain peaks, an orange glow slowly crests to claim this day as today. To begin everything all over again.

Footsteps squish the grass, and before I see who, Daisy appears beside me. Without speaking, she slides between my legs, and I pull her up, until her back rests against my chest. I wrap my arms around her, both of our eyes on the horizon.

Two more people join. Without word, Lo sits down a few feet from me, Lily next to her husband. Pressed together, he holds her while she holds him. Their gazes follow ours, hushed, while warm colors paint the landscape.

Connor noiselessly walks outside and stands by a red chair near me.

Hands in his pockets. As Rose reaches him, heels sinking in the grass, he extends his hand to her, and she clasps tightly. They both turn and observe the skyline. Air weightless.

And unencumbered.

All six of us fix our eyes on the rising sun.

Connor whispers to her too, drawing her away from the broken thing. With fire beneath her yellow-green gaze, Rose looks just as unaltered by the years. Just as fucking immortal.

Just as enduring.

Is it surprising—that they’d be equal in this measure too? It never has been to me.

As I pass them to the side door, I see their spouse’s names on their lips. Richard.

Rose.

War and love is in their eyes.

Both entranced with battle plans, their fucking wit. Their words. In this moment, with Audrey sleeping in Connor’s arms, they can’t speak more than murmured whispers. War diminishes to love, and I can practically see their affection for what they’ve created.

Seven kids.

Their family.

With his free hand, Connor cups the back of Rose’s head. He holds her piercing gaze. And then Connor presses an adoring, tender kiss to her forehead. Engrained with sentiments that Connor once believed were fake.

By the fridge, Lily holds a sleepy toddler in a panda onesie, and she whispers quietly with Lo. He has this look like he’s half-listening but really he’s thinking about how adorable his wife fucking is, especially with his daughter right there.

I know how this’ll go so I don’t wait around to watch. He’ll tease her by leaning in for a kiss, only to stick his tongue in Lily’s ear. She’ll whisper-hiss his name and then slug his shoulder.

He’ll mock wince.

They’ll look infatuated with each other, remembering how many years they’ve spent. How far their lives have come. How much love they’ve shared.

Their romance has never changed. We all thank the fucking world for that because there is no Lily without Lo. There is no Lo without Lily.

kids can’t wait for Willow to be here. We all see her often, but she bounces between England and Philly ever since she opened a Superheroes & Scones in London. It’s not that the kids are hyper about Willow particularly but the little girl she brings with her.

Vada Lauren Abbey.

Garrison married Willow the same year she graduated college. He’s as much a part of this family as my sister—he even created one of the most lucrative video game franchises in the world, all based off of the Fourth Degree comic book universe, invested by Connor.

The next darkened bedroom contains four wooden bunk beds, all occupied with boys, fast asleep.

On one top bunk, Charlie Keating Cobalt sleeps, but even though he’s ten, he chose to skip two grades, in the same classes as Janie and Moffy. Truth is, he probably could’ve skipped more.

His twin brother sleeps in the bunk below him. I can only distinguish Beckett’s dark wavy brown hair, almost curly and shaggy.

On the second top bunk lies eight-year-old Eliot Alice Cobalt. He shares his pillow with worn paperbacks of Shakespearian tragedies and comedies. His younger brother, only eleven months difference between them, sleeps below.

Tom Carraway Cobalt has his quilt pulled over his head, blocking out the world.